iPhone SDK and Developer Program

While I was in Texas for SXSW a few weeks ago, Apple released the software developer kit (SDK) for the iPhone to anyone that signed up as a developer. Amidst the craziness that is Southby, I managed to sign up (actually just upgrade my existing developer profile to include the iPhone program).

Unfortunately my hotel internet connection was unbearably slow so I wasn’t able to download the SDK - over 2 gigabytes of developer goodness. Since BarCamp Austin was going on at the same time as SXSW, I heard about an iPhone DevCamp which motivated me to duck out of SXSW over lunch and head down there to get the scoop. I was able to get the SDK files via thumb drive and spend a little time with some cool people talking about what this all means to potential iPhone developers. It was also my first chance to see the iPhone simulator in action, called Aspen.

Later that weekend, I did manage to install the SDK and poke around a little with the simulator, called Aspen. I still haven’t gotten much further since then other than playing with the Hello World app and a few other samples that Apple provides but that’s what long weekends were meant for.

A neat little musical app demo called Kalimba:

As you can see from the above screenshots, the simulator allows you to rotate the screen virtually, just like a real iPhone. I don’t think I’ve broken any agreement with Apple in posting this stuff but I’m going to leave it at this while I dig into things a little deeper this weekend. I’ve got a few ideas for some apps that I’d like to take a crack at developing and so far the tools Apple has for developing are pretty slick…but I’m not really an application developer but have a few friends that are so we figure we can pull something together with our ideas and combined skillsets.

If you want to actually distribute your apps to iPhone users, you’ll need to apply for the $99 developer program which I haven’t done yet….I’m going to wait and see if I can come up with anything useful using the SDK before I put some money done on this since it’s really more for fun than anything grander at this point in time at least. Duane’s also got a few thoughts on the SDK you might also want to check out.

At some point in June (rumoured to be at WWDC but possibly later in the month), version 2.0 of the iPhone firmware is supposed to come out which will facilitate the apps created by developers with the SDK. June is shaping up to be an interesting month of iPhone related things with the rumours of a 3G version of the hardware and maybe even a Canadian release? I don’t know if I believe that rumour but it would make sense…but we’ve been saying that since last June when the iPhone was originally released.

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 : Apple, BarCamp, Developer, Interaction Design, Software, iPhone : 3 Comments

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